Why there is a (') prefix on "default" and "current"?

[Dancefire]

On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 12:09 AM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>
> On Apr 24, 2010, at 1:36 AM, Dancefire wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> When I translate for string
>> -----
>> A list of directories (strings) indicating where to look for html and
>> parsed-html files. Each element must be a string representing a
>> directory or a symbol where 'default expands to the default path, and
>> 'current expands to the current value of the path.
>> -----
>> in src/scm/command-line.scm
>>
>> I first thought, it's single quote for string 'default expands to the
>> default path, and '. But then, I realized it's not. It looks like a
>> prefix of word "default" and "current". So, is there any special
>> meaning of it? or a typo?
>>
>
> It's a language element of Scheme indicating that the identifier is an identifier, which in Scheme is called a "symbol". Strings in Scheme are surrounded with double quotes: "a string". One can define a symbol to refer to a string: (define string "a string") and would afterwards use it with the leading single quote (print 'string).
>

So, 'default and 'current are defined variable name, and I should not
translate them, and should leave them as exactly 'default and
'current. Right?

> Regards,
> John Ralls
>
>

-- 
Tao Wang